Skate Like a Girl ramps up confidence through inclusivity

After experiencing gender discrimination within skateboard and sports culture, Ashley Masters and Kim Woozy re-vamped Skate Like a Girl’s Bay Area chapter in hopes to inspire girls, women, trans and non-binary folks to participate in skating and to bring inclusivity to the industry.

Video: Jessica Christian

When Ashley Masters discovered skateboarding at age 10, she was instantly hooked.

As she continued to skate through her teen years in Southern California, she found that being a girl skateboarder was a harder trick to pull off than a kick flip. The industry was dominated by males. No matter her skill level, she was still a girl and unable to be seen as an equal among her peers at the skate park.

“When I went off to college at UC Santa Cruz, I saw a lot of people that skated,” Masters says. “But the whole time I really wasn’t seeing people that looked like me.”

After moving to the Bay Area, she discovered the organization Skate Like a Girl, a nonprofit that seeks to level the ramp for everyone by promoting confidence and bringing inclusivity and safe spaces for women, transgender and nonbinary folks through skateboarding.

Today, Masters is the co-director of Skate Like a Girl’s Bay Area Chapter alongside Kim Woozy, who also found skating early in life but was discouraged by the industry’s lack of inclusivity.

The organization began in Seattle in 2002, but its Bay Area chapter was revamped by Woozy and Masters less than three years ago. They host summer camps, monthly skateboarding clinics for all ages and genders at skate parks in Oakland and San Francisco, and casual meet-ups specifically for female, transgender and nonbinary boarders.

“It’s the idea to create equity for those who are marginalized both in the skate community and as well as in the world,” Woozy says. “Our programming is designed to create that space and inclusion for people who don’t normally have that out in the world.”

Skate Like a Girl ramps up confidence through inclusivity

1of11Maryzelle Ungo, 21, assisted by Skate Like a Girl volunteer Alexandra Pepin, practices dropping into a ramp at the group’s skate clinic for female boarders at the Playland at 43rd Avenue skate park in San Francisco.Photo: Photos ny Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

2of11Fourteen-year-old Gianna Wong sports an “Equality” T-shirt while attending a Skate Like a Girl clinic at the Playland at 43rd Avenue park.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

3of11Skate Like a Girl development director Kim Woozy (center) and program director Ashley Masters.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

4of11Skate Like a Girl program director Ashley Masters (center) leads a group of girls during a clinic at the Playland at 43rd skate park in S.F.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

11of11Skate Like a Girl program director Ashley Masters (right) hugs a volunteer during a skate clinic.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

A native of Fremont, Woozy worked for years in marketing for the skateboard industry and recognized how difficult it was for women to excel as professional skaters. In the new world of social media, she sees that shifting drastically.

“You’d have some of the world’s best female skateboarders not being supported because of their looks, where that is never considered on the men’s side,” Woozy says. “But I think over time that has really shifted especially with the internet taking away some of these gatekeepers. Girls and women started to be able to self publish on Instagram and Facebook, so you no longer had filters when it comes to media such as TV and magazines.”

As the lead instructor, Masters sees using a skateboard as a vehicle to promote mentorship and skills that can be utilized in everyday life.

“We’ll get a lot of young girls that are like, ‘I’m not going to be very good at this,’ and to me that already shows me where they’re at in terms of how they understand themselves,” Masters says.

Looking forward, Woozy and Masters hope to integrate Skate Like a Girl’s Bay Area chapter into more middle schools around Oakland and San Francisco to inspire what they believe is a crucial age group when it comes to building self-confidence.

“It’s been shared that middle school girls will stop participating in things they aren’t good at or haven’t tried before because of failing or not looking good,” Masters says. “But I think there’s something really valuable in continuing to take those things on, so we’re hoping to teach that demographic how to stand up for themselves.”

“There’s the value in reclaiming that narrative ‘Skate like a girl’ or ‘Play like a girl’ or ‘Oh, you throw like a girl,’” Woozy says. “It came from a negative perspective of putting people down and reclaiming it as “Oh, yeah I want to skate like a girl.”

Jessica Christian is a San Francisco Chronicle photographer. Watch a video at www.sfchronicle.com/theregulars. The Regulars is a photo and video column that offers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in the Bay Area, caught in routine activities of modern urban life.

Jessica Christian is a photojournalist and Bay Area native who most recently served as the photo editor and staff photographer for the San Francisco Examiner. A graduate of San Francisco State University's journalism program, Jessica has worked for multiple San Francisco publications covering everything from daily news to stories surrounding city issues such as homelessness and housing. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring the Bay Area's trails, growing her cooking skills, and petting any cute dog that comes her way.